Courses for Spring 2018

Basic French

This is the second half of a two-semester course. Four meetings a week for oral practice plus one conversation hour. One hour of work outside of class is expected every day (grammar/writing, oral practice, reading). An accelerated track enables qualified students to go directly to FREN 0500 after FREN 0200. Enrollment limited to 15.

Intermediate French II

Continuation of FREN 0300 but may be taken separately. A four-skill language course that stresses oral interaction in class (three meetings per week plus one 50-minute conversation section). Materials include audio activities, film, and a novel. Short compositions with systematic grammar practice. Prerequisite: FREN 0300, FREN 0200 with permission, or placement.

Writing and Speaking French I

A four-skill language course that stresses oral interaction in class. Thematic units will focus on songs, poems, a short novel, a graphic novel, films and a longer novel. Activities include a creative project using Comic Life, and a systematic grammar review. Prerequisite: FREN 0400, FREN 0200 with written permission, or placement.

Writing and Speaking French II

Prerequisite for study in French-speaking countries. Class time is devoted mainly to conversation and discussion practice. Writing instruction and assignments focus on essays, commentaries, and to a lesser degree, on story writing. Apart from reading assignments for discussion (press articles and literary excerpts), students select two novels to read. Prerequisite: FREN 0500 or placement. Enrollment limited to 15. WRIT

L’inquiétant étranger

Same level as FREN 0600. The other, whether it is the immigrant, the transgendered, the new neighbor, has always inspired curiosity, mistrust and often fear.This course will examine the different representations of the stranger in contemporary Francophone literature and film, cultural theory and media representations. Topics include race, sexuality, tourism, immigration, identity, mental illness and exclusion. Readings will feature contemporary works (Ananda Devi, Edouard Louis, Amélie Nothomb, Laferrière, Diome). Discussions and writing assignments are based on those sources and introduce students to the analysis of literature. Prerequisite: FREN 0500. Enrollment limited to 15. Taught in French. WRIT

Introduction à l'analyse littéraire

On what terms and with what tools can we “read” a literary text? An introduction to major genres (the short story, the novel, poetry, theater) of French and Francophone literature and to a range of analytical approaches to the text, including narrative theory, poetics and psychoanalysis. Readings will feature select 19th and 20th century works (Maupassant, Apollinaire, Ionesco, NDiaye) and excerpts from key analytic/theoretical writings (Benveniste, Todorov, Freud, Barthes, Bakhtin). Taught in French. WRIT

Le Roman contemporain

In this course we will read a selection of French and Francophone novels from 1985 to 2015. Authors include Patrick Modiano, Marie NDiaye, Lydie Salvayre, Marie Redonnet, Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Laurent Mauvignier. Placing these novels in dialogue with key voices from critical theory (Cixous, Barthes, Derrida, Kristeva), we will pursue through the semester a sustained reflection on major contemporary “problematics” including identity, subjecthood, hospitality, history, genealogy, gender, memory and ghosts. Taught in French. Prerequisite: a course at the 0600- or 0700 -level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown. WRIT

La Communauté

What do we mean when we say “we”? What does it mean to “be with,” and what do we share with one another? This class ponders such questions, incessantly asked by 20th-century French literature and thought, by studying works that confront the necessity and difficulty of life in common, be it in the community of a family, society, friendship, lovers, or artists. Authors read include Marguerite Duras (La Maladie de la mort), Maylis de Kerangal (Naissance d’un pont), Maurice Blanchot (La Communauté inavouable), Jean-Luc Nancy (La Communauté désoeuvrée), Jacques Rancière (Aux bords du politique), and Georges Bataille’s journal Acéphale. In French.
Prerequisite: A course at the 0600- or 0700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown. WRIT

Sorcellerie et Renaissance: le sort de la sorcière

An interdisciplinary exploration of witches and witchcraft in Renaissance France based on close analysis of primary texts-confessions from trials, iconography, literary texts, and witchcraft theory. Topics include the trial of Joan of Arc, the science of demons, skepticism, and the nature of belief. Readings in Montaigne, Mauss, among others. Enrollment limited to 20. Taught in French. Prerequisite: a course at the 0600- or 0700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown. WRIT

Advanced Oral and Written French: A table!

Thematic units with different approaches to French cuisine and the French meal, such as regional cuisine, meals in literature and at the movies, radio-TV culinary shows, political and economical considerations, and, of course, a practical unit on how to compose, prepare and eat a French meal. Follows FREN 0600 in the sequence of language courses. Development of oral skills via presentations, debates, conversation, and discussion based on the various topics. Writing activities: essays, translations, commentaries, journals, creative descriptions and stories, etc. Taught in French. Pre-requisites include FREN 0600 and FREN 0610 and FREN 0620. WRIT

A nous deux la mode

A bird’s eye view of the fashion world, we will explore the birth and evolution of the French fashion industry (from the development of department stores to the birth and rise of Haute Couture), its impact on society and social change, as well as its relationship with art and advertisement. Materials range from literary excerpts to journalistic texts, online resources, and films, and will include portraits of fashion designers, studies of iconic fashion pieces, descriptions of techniques and crafts, and analyses of fashion shows. Activities include presentations, discussion, essays, commentaries, and the creation of a trend book. Taught in French. WRIT

Advanced Written French: Atelier d'écriture

An advanced course in (functional or creative) writing. The workshops range from practice in interpersonal communication (letters) to essays and various forms of narration. Recommended to students returning from a study-abroad program, students with a native French background who lack formal training in writing, or post-FREN 1510 students. Exercises for each workshop plus a final writing project. Prerequisite: FREN 1510. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required. Taught in French. WRIT

Machines de guerre: Violence et société en Afrique francophone

From civil war in Ivory Coast to terrorism in Mali, war and violence in Francophone Africa both provoke and respond to debates about France’s colonial legacy and continued presence on the continent. Yet these phenomena have much to tell us about emerging social relations, new forms of politics, and how ordinary Africans view the future—their own, that of their countries, and of the continent as a whole. This course studies these and related questions in a variety of media, including anthropological texts, written testimonies, novels, documentary films, philosophy, and investigative journalism. Anglophone Africa will also be considered. Taught in French. Prerequisite: a course at the 0600- or 0700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown. WRIT

Extrême droite en France

Studies the rise of far-right tendencies (nationalism, anti-Semitism, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia) in France from the 3rd Republic to today. Topics covered include the Dreyfus Affair, the Vichy regime, the Front national. While the main focus is on France, we will also give comparative consideration to questions related to political extremism that resonate in the US and other European nations, such as national identity, populism, immigration, exclusion, religious intolerance. This course will draw on a variety of sources, fictional and non-fictional, including print journalism, novels, historical essays, and film. For senior French Studies concentrators; instructor permission required for others. In French.
WRIT

Senior Thesis

Independent study in an area of special interest to the student, with close guidance of a member of the staff, and leading to a major paper. Required of candidates for honors, and recommended for all senior concentrators. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

Théories et fictions des Lumières

This course seeks to examine the idea of “Lumières” in Eighteenth-century France through the reading of some of the major authors of the period. Focusing on the relationship between theory and fiction we will analyze the concepts central to the French Enlightenment: happiness, progress and freedom as they are formulated both in fiction (novels and plays) and in theoretical texts. Readings will include major texts by Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, as well as other writers and philosophes. Conducted in French. Prerequisite: a course at the 0600- or 0700 -level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown.

Au croisement des événements (de mai 68)

Nearly 50 years ago France was living through the “events” of May ’68, a “revolution” that was not only cultural and political but at the same time artistic and intellectual. We will try—by analyzing a series of texts—first to understand the stakes of movements such as Situationism, Structuralism and Tel Quel, and second, to examine the relevance of those groups and their ideas in the very different context of the present time. Texts by Debord, Barthes, Sollers, Derrida, Deleuze, Foucault and others. Taught in French.

Preliminary Examination Preparation

Reading and Research

Work with individual students in connection with special readings, problems of research, or preparation of theses. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.